{"id":41883,"date":"2026-07-01T02:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/41883\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T02:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T02:35:08","slug":"afl-news-2026-lachie-neale-brisbane-star-to-meet-with-st-kilda-coach-ross-lyon-free-agency-trade-period-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/41883\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL News 2026: Lachie Neale brisbane star to meet with St Kilda coach Ross Lyon free agency trade period future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lachie Neale\u2019s<\/a> future remains one of the more intriguing developments of the 2026 season, following reports he is set to meet with St Kilda<\/a> coach Ross Lyon<\/a> in Victoria this week.<\/p>\n

An unrestricted free agent, the two-time Brownlow Medallist was reportedly initially weighing up departing Brisbane<\/a> to return to Perth and be closer to his family, following his public split from his wife Jules<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Lachie Neale of the Lions\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

However, while both West Coast<\/a> and Fremantle<\/a> have interest in Neale, it appears to be a pair of Victorian clubs leading the charge for his services in 2027; Collingwood<\/a> and St Kilda.<\/p>\n

The Magpies have reportedly offered the 33-year-old a three-year, $3m contract<\/a>, while the Saints would see Neale reunite with Lyon, who coached him at the beginning of his career at the Dockers.<\/p>\n

Despite the off-field distractions, Neale is still playing strong footy. He\u2019s averaging 30 disposals, seven clearances and five inside 50s per game for the Lions this season.<\/p>\n

However, Port Adelaide<\/a> champion Kane Cornes<\/a> believes Brisbane has every right to be confused as to why Neale, who captained the club to two premierships, would leave the club and move further away from his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow would Brisbane be feeling about this? Lachie is handling it in a mature way and it\u2019s not affecting his performance, but this is rare air that Brisbane is chasing. Three premierships in a row,\u201d Cornes told SEN on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now this information comes out before a huge game in Geelong that his mind is potentially on a meeting the following day with a rival club on where he\u2019s going to play next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree premierships in a row just doesn\u2019t happen very often. You become immortal. Now he\u2019s got a scheduled meeting with another club. It doesn\u2019t make a whole lot of sense to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cZak Butters and Port are out of finals contention. They\u2019re not chasing a third straight premiership. He\u2019s not dealing with personal issues that the club has needed to support him through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brisbane coach Chris Fagan admitted he found the idea of Neale leaving Brisbane for Collingwood \u201chead scratching\u201d earlier in the year.<\/p>\n

Cornes believes a move to St Kilda would be even harder to explain.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris Fagan said it was a head scratcher if Neale goes to Collingwood. I can\u2019t imagine what Chris Fagan is thinking and how hard he\u2019s scratching his head about Neale going to St Kilda,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s to have success, stay at Brisbane, if it\u2019s to be closer to your family, go to Perth. I can absolutely understand why (Neale moving to Victoria) would be a head-scratching move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brisbane is in Victoria this week for a Thursday night clash with Geelong, allowing Neale to meet up with Lyon over the weekend. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lachie Neale\u2019s future remains one of the more intriguing developments of the 2026 season, following reports he is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"class_list":["post-41883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brisbane","tag-brisbane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}